I've been off the HF bands for years. I got psyched up after attending Field Day with a group of guys.

I cranked down a recently purchased Ten-Tec Century 21 and I'm feeding it into a W3EDP antenna. First contact was about 273 miles at about 2 1/2 watts. I'll take it. Now that I got a couple of kinks worked out of my station I'm running about 5 watts.

CW at QRP power is a blast so far. I've been wanting to do this for years. Like I said, FINALLY!!!

Re:KA0HVE A lot depends on TYPE of portable ops that you intend to do. For typical sunny patio/park picnic table weekend ops the relatively larger and more fragile rigs like a K-1 or Weber tri bander are ideal. For more exposed rough and tumble ops like backpacking, operating from canoe/kayak, the smaller and rugged single band rigs like the MFJ Cubs are better suited. Experience quickly taught me to leave my K-1 at home or at most a nice sunny day portable out in the back yard screen house.

For portable use I eventually want to build a QRP xcvr. Any suggestions for a first kit to build (xcvr or other)?

I really like the SW40+ series for backpacking: small, cheap, light, and easy to use. After hauling my old Argonaut (which is light but takes up a lot of space) and HW-8 around in my backpack I found that, even with multiple bands available I mostly worked 40m anyway.I've tweaked the receive current down below 30mA so it is fairly stingy on battery power,which helps to reduce the total weight.

Fine on your operation with the Century 21. Since you expressed interest in building a QRP, here are a couple recommendations --

1. Single Band 40m -- Cyclone from 4 State QRP Club. Nice performance and excellent support during build. Rig is about same size as a paddle, 5 watts output and tunes entire CW band. Stable after short warmup.

2. PFR-3 or Hendricks Tri-Bander from QRPkits.com -- these are multiband rigs, a bit more complex.

If you don't have prior soldering experience, I suggest a simple warm-up project -- 4 state QRP has a nice electronic keyer for example, or a nifty NESCAF audio filter from NE QRP club.

I'd suggest a KX1 because of the DDS VFO. You can't go wrong with any Elecraft kit.The KX1 can receive short wave broadcasts as well, which the K1 can't.I have a K1 and I love it. A bit drifty while warming up, but stable after 10 mins.The advantage of the K1 is slightly more power, a better ATU and a speaker.

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